If you bought a car on or after July 1st of 2006, you are protected by new California laws. Here are some of the changes to make note of:
- The dealer must provide you with your credit score and an explanation of how they will use it.
- The dealer must provide you with an itemized priced list of all the extra expenses.
- Used cars that are advertised as being “certified” must meet certain requirements.
- There is a two-day contract-cancellation option for buying used cars under $40,000.

For more details visit CA DMV. (Article from AAA)

Microsoft is offering a free beta version of their Office Accounting 2007. This is a great software to have for all your business owners / accountants. The 2007 version has Ebay/Paypal integration built in. Go here to download: Link. (Courtest of Fatwallet.)  To download I think you have to use Internet Explorer and have Active X turned-on.

Instead of a traditional wedding gift, couples also have a choice to have guests make a donation to their favorite charity / non-profit organization. Two services that offer this are I Do Foundation and Just Give. A couple’s first step is to create a new account with them and then choose where they would like their donation gifts to go to. If guests still want to buy a gift, these services also offer gift registries that give-back a portion of the purchase cost towards the charity of choice. The only down-side of these services is a 3% deduction from the donations to cover their expenses. My fiancée and I are planning to do this and hopefully have our guests be encouraged that their participation is supporting a good cause.

If you want to help start your kids in getting in the habit of saving, then open up this savings account for them over at Affinity Bank. 10% annual percentage yield for up to a balance of $500. Kids up to age 16 qualify. More information at the Bank Deals Blog.

If you have spare miles with Delta, you can use it to get magazine subscriptions. There’s a lot to choose from starting at only 300 miles. Link Here.

I ordered a subscription of The Economist. This is a great news magazine but unfortunately the annual subscription is very pricey. I think the cheapest I’ve seen it is $98, a little cheaper if you’re a student. So I think 3,200 miles is a really good deal. I ordered it three weeks ago and recieved my first issue today, yay!

Earlier this year my fiancée and I decided that we would each save $10,000 for our wedding next May. So, since the summer I’ve been aggressively saving my money into my HSBC account. Any extra income has been channeled to my wedding budget. Well today I opened a Roth IRA. Oops. I’ve been contemplating opening one for a long time and I finally succumbed to it. I already have a 401k and get 4% company match but I wanted to spread my investment around a little. T. Rowe Price has a good program where you can direct-deposit as little as $50 a month and they waive the minimum initial investment of $2,500. So even though my 401k is with Fidelity I went with T. Rowe Price. I’m actually very impressed with their user interface. It is much more intuitive and easier to use than what I have at Fidelity. I looked around at the different funds they had and I went with the Real Estate Fund (TRREX). This is the only sector I’m missing in my 401k so I thought it would be a good balance. Its rate of return has been over 25% this year so I hope I’m not chasing performance and setting myself up for loss. Well with a small monthly investment I trust that dollar-cost-averaging will help me out in the long run.

Another good find on Fatwallet tonite. Looks like American Express has a new business credit card out that gives 5% back on gas, wireless service, and office supplies and 1% on all other purchases. Instead of dealing with points or rebate checks, it looks like you recieve a credit on your bill automatically. I have other 5% cashback cards for gas but this will be nice for my Cingular wireless service. Check it out: Link.

Just saw this on Fatwallet. You can get Dave Ramsey’s book today for only $10.00 Link.

Cap over at Stop Buying Crap occasionally showcases products and services that he considers a big waste of money. There are so many products and advertisement bombarding you with the message that ‘You can’t live without this so you must buy now’ mentality. No thanks! I try to be a savvy shopper and educate myself about what is really useful and worthwhile or whether a product is all just hype. I’ve had my share of buying crap and wasting money on things that I wish I had given more thought into. Some purchases however have proven to be a home-run. Here are some items that I continue to use on a regular basis and have been worthwhile purchases for me:

Black & Decker Brew N’ Go ($19) - I am a big coffee connoisseur (A.K.A. = Addict). There is no way that I would spend $1.50 everyday on coffee if I can make it myself. I start each morning at work with a big cup of coffee. I’ve must have made hundreds of cups of coffee with this machine. Since it has a metal mesh all I have to do is dump the coffee grounds and rinse it out each day. On the weekends I go to coffee shops and bookstores to go read and purchase a small coffee. But I consider that a usage fee since I’m using their facilities for a few hours at a time.

Nalgene Bottle ($8) - I don’t use it everyday like some people but when I go out on a trip or am outdoors during the weekends my Nalgene always comes with me. I’ve had this thing for many years and I have definitely gotten my money’s worth. Stick a carabiner and clip it to your pack.

Moleskin Pocket Notebook ($8) - I am very detail oriented and picky about organization. I use my Moleskin to keep a on-going list of things To-Do. I draw a checkbox next to each line item and cross off the box when the item is completed. This method has helped me be a lot more organized and efficient with my time. If you don’t want to spend $8, try this for free: PocketMod

ARC AAA P ($30) - I am a total gearhead so I have to be careful that I don’t waste away all my money on gadgets. But a quality light is something that is worthy to spend money on. The ARC AAA is hands-down the best LED light in its class. Small, durable, long-battery life. Keep it clipped to your keys and you won’t regret it. I recently switched to a Fenix P1 for more flux but I’m paying a price because its bulkier. Check out CandlePowerForum, but be fore-warned, flashlight collecting can become a very expensive hobby.

Henckel’s Pro-S Chef’s Knife ($60) - If you’ve ever read a cookbook they willll tell you that you really don’t need a whole knife block set but only a really good utility knife. The previous sets I’ve had were all garbage. I settled on a 8” single-piece forged carbon steel Chef’s knife from Henckel’s. I bought it a few years back and love it. I only cook a few times a week but nevertheless a quality knife is a must!

MSR Pack Towel ($25) - If you go backpacking or traveling you know that weight is a premium. This thing is kinda like a chamois that you use to dry off your car. Its super thin and light and drys really fast. Sure beats lugging around a bath towel.

USB Thumb Drive ($20) - These days I think everyone has a usb thumb drive. If you don’t have one, what rock have you been living under? Just kidding. I constantly use my memory stick at work and at home. Transferring files, saving important documents (like my budget), saving pictures, backing-up important documents, etc. I even use it to run portable applications like Firefox, Open Office, File Zilla, Nvu Editor, etc. Check out Portable Apps

Its interesting to note that as I look at my list of purchases that have been worthwhile, I realize that they are all relatively inexpensive. Hmm…what’s the correlation here? It makes me a little upset that all the big tickets purchases I’ve made in the past (mostly electronics) have been, to some extent, a waste of my money. I’m hoping that this realization will serve as a warning sign for me in the future the next time I get tempted to splurge on the latest gadget.

I just got my 15,000 Thankyou Points signup bonus from my Citi Business PremierPass card. Click here to sign up for the card. This is a great credit card if you travel a fly a decent amount each year. In addition to getting points for your purchases, you also get points for all the miles you fly. The caveat is that in order to redeem your “flight points” you need to spend that much in dollars for them to match it. (e.g. if you fly 1,000 miles then you need to spend $1,000 to get a total of 2,000 TY points.) It would be nice if this card was a cash-back program, but there are decent redemption awards in the Citibank Thankyou Network. From Fatwallet and Flyertalk it seems that using your TY Points for award tickets is the best value in redeeming these points. Here’s a table of award tickets you can redeem:

Restricted Ticket (Coach) - US 48 and Canada “25,000″
Restricted Ticket (Coach) - Mexico and Caribbean “30,000″
Restricted Ticket (Coach) - Central America “35,000″
Restricted Ticket (Coach) - Hawaii and Alaska “35,000″
Restricted Ticket (Coach) - Europe “50,000″
Unrestricted Ticket (Coach) - US 48 and Canada “50,000″
Restricted Ticket (Business) - US 48 and Canada “60,000″
Unrestricted Ticket (Coach) - Mexico and Caribbean “60,000″
Restricted Ticket (Business) - C. America “60,000″
Restricted Ticket (Business) - Mexico and Caribbean “60,000″
Restricted Ticket (Coach) - Asia “60,000″
Unrestricted Ticket (Coach) - Hawaii and Alaska “70,000″
Restricted Ticket (Business) - Hawaii and Alaska “75,000″
Restricted Ticket (Coach) - S. America “90,000″
Unrestricted Ticket (Business) - US 48 and Canada “90,000″
Restricted Ticket (Coach) - South Pacific “100,000″
Unrestricted Ticket (Business) - Caribbean “120,000″
Unrestricted Ticket (Business) - Mexico “120,000″
Unrestricted Ticket (Business) - Hawaii and Alaska “150,000″
Restricted Ticket (Business) - S. America “160,000″
Restricted Ticket (Business) - Asia “165,000″
Restricted Ticket (Business) - Europe “165,000″
Unrestricted Ticket (Coach) - Continental Europe “180,000″
Unrestricted Ticket (Business) - Continental Europe “300,000″